This chapter is from the book

Introduction

A lot of theory has been covered in the previous chapters. Now it's time
to start implementing. This chapter and the ones to follow take what we have
discussed up to now and roll it into an implementation plan for a data center
that tens of thousands of users will rely upon.

First, we introduce clustering as it is accomplished on the Windows Server
2003 platform. We also discuss cluster concepts, models, and architecture. Then
we implement the Active Directory architecture and network architecture as
discussed in Chapter 5, "Preparing the Platform for a High-Performance
Network," and lay the foundations for a highly available and reliable Web,
database, and email server architecture, a network that will eventually comprise
NLB IIS servers, NLB application servers, SQL Server clusters, Exchange
clusters, and file and print clusters.

You can look at this chapter as the foundation implementation plan. It is
what you need to follow if tasked with constructing and deploying a highly
available solution. In the practical part, this chapter first outlines the
process of building the forest and forest root domain, on either your lab or
production network. It also covers the process of providing a resource for OS
installations, tools, utilities, and patches. Then we prepare the cluster
virtual server to begin hosting resources.

In this chapter, you implement Active Directory. At first glance, it seems
that you are doing nothing more than setting up the usual AD network. But as you
install the various cluster servers and services, you see that what is laid down
in this chapter provides the solid foundation for the future systems. Then we
deal with the actual process of clustering the servers, setting up cluster
resources, and getting ready to activate the fail-over resources in Part II,
"Building High Availability Windows Server 2003 Solutions." This is
something you cannot do unless AD is well implemented beforehand.